Oven appliances generally include a cabinet and an insulated cooking chamber disposed therein for receipt of food items for cooking. Heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to food items located therein. The heating elements can include a bake heating element positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber and/or a broil heating element positioned at a top of the cooking chamber. Oven appliances may also include a convection heating assembly, which may include a convection heating element and fan or other mechanism for creating a flow of heated air within the cooking chamber.
During operation of such oven appliances, one or more heating elements may be energized to heat the cooking chamber to a selected cooking temperature. Oven appliances require features for managing the thermal energy generated by the various heating elements. For example, conventional oven appliances define an air plenum between the cabinet and the insulated cooking chamber which houses the appliance controller, heating element junctions, and other electronics that require cooling. In addition, side panels and other surfaces of oven appliances often require significant cooling to meet regulatory standards.
Therefore, such oven appliances include cooling systems for managing the flow of heated air and regulating component temperatures. For example, a fan may be positioned within the oven appliance to continuously draw out heated air within the air plenum and replenish it with cooler ambient air, thereby cooling the oven electronics and the cabinet housing them.
However, conventional cooling systems draw air from a single inlet location, e.g., from a back of the oven appliance. In this manner, the mass flow rate of air exiting oven appliance may be larger proximate the back of the oven appliance relative to the front of the appliance. Notably, the back of the oven appliance typically needs the least cooling, whereas the front of the oven appliance typically houses most of the control electronics, experiences the highest temperatures, and requires the most cooling.
Accordingly, an oven appliance that provides features for improved thermal management would be useful. More particularly, a cooling system for an oven appliance that draws cool air from the control panel and the side panels of the oven appliance would be especially beneficial.